


If You Believe In Magic

by yunyu



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gods, Hawaii, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Magic, Spirits, Street & Stage Magic, Youkai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 14:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10595811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yunyu/pseuds/yunyu
Summary: Sakura Haruno is twenty-two, a lifelong resident of Honolulu with a dream of running her very own magic show her way--but for the time being she's stuck dyeing her hair a ridiculous colour to be a living prop for the Amazing Ninja Magic Show (starring her long-time crush, Sasuke).But she's not giving up on her dreams of her own show. It's going to be totally different--very mystical and immersive. But mystical and immersive stage magic gets expensive. So if she can pick up a few props cheap at the estate sale of a Japanese occultist, that's too good to resist...“Don’t be too worried?! You’re telling me I have a Japanese demon in my condo and I shouldn’t be worried?”(Rating may go up.)





	1. First Impressions

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meliss-cake](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=meliss-cake).



_(art by meliss-cake on Tumblr, used with permission--the inspiration for this story!)_

Sakura picked up her smartphone and mimed throwing it, then visualized it shattering against the wall of her condo into a thousand pieces. She had an excellent imagination and this technique allowed her to indulge her terrible temper without constant property damage.

She set the phone back down, sighed, and tried to draw the mystery kanji from the book into the input reader again.

“Why do you care whether you have the right words anyway, Forehead?” Her roommate Inocencia said. “It’s not like anyone in the audience will notice or care. By the way, your roots are showing.”

Sakura jerked up to look at the mirror and then scowled as Ino began to cackle. “Don’t scare me like that! I have a show tonight!”

Ino perked up at that. “What, really? Is this _your show_ , your big break?! Why didn’t you tell me?! Geez I’m gonna have to call Sai and cancel—”

“No, it’s just the Amazing Ninja Magic Show again,” she said with a sigh. “But I still need to have my pink hair perfect. You know how particular Sasuke is about his colour coordination.”

Ino huffed. “Has Special Sauce found himself a new blonde yet to replace me?”

“No, he’s still looking. Every girl who tries out is either ‘too haole’ or ‘not blonde enough’, oh my God. I don’t think he even listens to the words coming out of his mouth sometimes.” Sakura shook her head and tried to draw the kanji again.

“Does he know you’re developing your own show?”

“Yes he does and he thinks it’s a waste of time.” She bit her lip. “Let’s not talk about him. The point is, I want this to be fusion, but authentic details are what sell the fusion. And don’t forget how many Japanese tourists come to the shows. I don’t want them snickering over my crappy fake Japanese.”

“Don’t you always say your Japanese sucks though?”

“Do you believe in me or not, Ino?!”

Ino waved her hands in mock surrender. “Alright, alright! Geez. Call Ramen-boy if you want someone to tell you that you can do anything you put your mind to. I’ll probably be home before you leave for the show, but just in case, break a leg. If you sabotage his shuriken trick so that Sasuke takes one in his dopey red eyes, I’ll pay your bail.”

Sakura snickered despite herself. “He got a new contact design, did I tell you? Trying to one-up his brother again. I admit it’s a really cool design but you can’t see them even from the front row so I don’t know what the point is.”

“Oh my God, what did I ever see in him. What do you _still_ see in him, Sakura?” She waved her hand. “Don’t try to convince me, I’m gonna be late to class. When you hit the big time you can book me for your European tour. Adieu.”

“Sayonara,” Sakura retorted, then sighed to herself as Ino left. Well, at least her Japanese pronunciation was on point.

It was Saturday morning, and ordinarily she’d still be sleeping off a Friday night show, but today she had risen ungodly early to check out an estate sale. A certain Mr. Fujiwara had died with his affairs in a hell of a tangle. In fact, there were actually a few estate sales going on at the same time, with various chunks and bits of his possessions. She had gotten a tip from a friend that worked for an auction house that the deceased had a great interest in the Japanese occult, and that with the hubbub and confusion surrounding the directions for disposing of them, this particular sale was happening last minute and mostly unadvertised. Therefore, Sakura might be able to pick up some real bargains to use as props in her stage show.

If she ever got to have her own magic show, beyond local amateur nights.

“Real bargains” were still mostly out of her price range, but she had picked up a few things, and one of them was this neat nineteenth century book of _onmyoudou,_ a Japanese occult practice of divination and magical elements, particularly yin and yang. This particular volume was apparently about various spirits, and had marvellous hand-painted illustrations of gods, ghosts, demons, monsters, and all sorts of other paranormal beings, as well as what appeared to be instructions for dealing with them, avoiding them, inviting them, banishing them, identifying them, etc.

The illustration for this particular incantation balanced grotesque and crowded detail with sweeping blank space in a classic asymmetric way. At first glance it was an ordinary rural scene: a rice field, with a mountain in the distance. In the field, on the same side as the mountain, was a scarecrow, but it did not appear to be doing its job, as not only was a bird perched on it, but its “legs” were surrounded by dogs. Upon closer examination, however, the birds, the dogs, and even the scarecrow itself appeared to have some more than natural power to them. The wide, white wings of an overlarge bird fanned above the scarecrow’s head like a strange crown. The expressions of the dogs seemed too wise, uncannily human, with postures a bit like trained circus dogs. What at first glance she had thought was meant to be a pile of dirt or a dark background behind everything was actually another dog of monstrous size and a baleful expression.

Not to mention that instead of the friendly _henohenomoji_ face she had expected, the face was blank except for a rip where the left eye should be. Disturbing.

Finally, she turned all the kanji into the correct kana. At least, into what she hoped were the correct kana for the kanji. Why did kanji have to have multiple readings, anyway?

Sakura tapped the back of her pen on the notebook page, closed her eyes for a moment, opened them, and reached for a _gunbai_ war fan. She had picked up a few of them, because they made very effective wands for a stage show, even better at catching and redirecting the audience’s attention than a regular wand. Sakura quite liked wands to begin with, so she had indulged.

This one had a diamond pattern on it, and she practiced a few movements with it as she gave the text a try.

When she finished the last word, Sakura got an enormous shock. A _literal_ shock.

The fan in her hands convulsed with electricity, spasming her muscles so that she was unable to open her hand and release it. The lights went out and there was an enormous boom like thunder. Just the lights going out shouldn’t have plunged everything into darkness, but it did, except for the light from the power arcing around her body. After an initial horrible pain she felt absolutely nothing for about ten very long seconds, during which she had enough time to realize that she had been electrocuted—somehow—and it didn’t matter how because clearly her heart had been stopped and oh no oh no this must be the last faint few seconds of oxygen in her brain and she was dying she was about to _die_ and this is how to feels to _die_ and—

The lights came back on and the fan fell out of her hand onto her dining room table, where it made a very ordinary clattering sound before it became still.

Sakura took a couple of gasping breaths and ran her hand through her hair. It wasn’t singed, but it was all fluffed out. She turned to check herself in the mirror.

She was _not_ alone at the table anymore.

Where Ino had been sitting not long before, there was now a man, standing on the chair, stock still.

Well. Was it a man? It wasn’t a _woman_ —Sakura was very sure of that—but he somehow didn’t seem like a man either… not a _human_ man, at least. The enormous silver wings sprouting from his back, the feathery tip of the right one threatening to knock brick-a-brack off the side table, weren’t the only reason for that either. One eye, with an angry red scar bisecting it, was closed. The other was dark and burning like charcoal. He was tall, so standing on a chair, his head nearly hit the ceiling, and around his head like a halo was a great deal of silver hair. Sakura stared up at him wide-eyed.

The silver-haired man looked down at Sakura and reeled off a very dramatic-sounding monologue in, unfortunately, Japanese. She continued staring at him in bewilderment.

He looked at her again, frowned, and repeated part of what he had said, a bit slower. Sakura could just about recognize the _structure_ of what he was saying (prepositions and conjugations and so on), but basically nothing of the _content_.

“ _Baka ja nai no?”_ He finally said, not without amusement. She understood that one. _You’re an idiot, huh?_

Sakura bristled at that. “I’m _not_ an idiot! I…” She swallowed. She’d lived in Honolulu all her life, so she knew exactly the phrase to reel off from countless run-ins with Japanese tourists. “ _Gomen nasai, nihongo ga sukoshidake hanashimasu!” I’m sorry, I only speak a little Japanese!_

 _“Omae no namae, nan to iu no da?”_   What’s your name, but she knew enough Japanese to know what his pronoun choice meant. Hmph. Apparently he was a _rude_ mysterious winged man.

She opened her mouth to say it, then abruptly shut it again. Wait. She wasn’t supposed to give fairies her real name, right? She vaguely remembered that from fairy tales. Was it the same in Japan? Better not to risk it.

But being rude to fairies _also_ made them upset, right? That part she was _definitely_ sure would be the same in Japan.

“ _Anata no namae… ichi,_ ” she said, pointing to him, then to herself and adding. “ _Ni._ ” An attempt, at least, at saying “your name first, mine second.”

He seemed amused. “Kakashi,” he said, pointing to himself.

“Kakashi,” she repeated. “Sakura _desu._ ”

Now that amused him very much, and she could see how he was looking at her pink hair. She bit her lip crossly, incensed by her inability to tell him exactly what she thought. She blew out a breath. _Focus, Sakura. There is an actual and literal winged man, possibly a fairy or demon, standing in your condo. Who speaks Japanese. You need back-up, and also confirmation that you are not experiencing a psychotic break._

“ _Koko de matte kudasai,_ ” she said firmly, _please wait here_ , another well-used phrase whenever she went to fetch an actual Japanese speaker. But who was she going to get? _Not_ her parents, for sure…

“Hai, hai,” he said lazily with a smirk as she hurriedly gathered together her purse and put on her sandals.

Just then her phone buzzed. She looked down and read the text from notifications. “Is something up with Sasuke? He’s not answering my texts. My flight got in early and he was supposed to pick me up.”

———

“If I’m crazy, you’ll forget this ever happened, right?” she said, gripping the steering wheel tightly as she drove them away from the airport.

Itachi, sitting in the passenger seat, looked exhausted, but he always looked exhausted. “If I thought you were crazy, I would not get into a car you were driving.”

She darted a glance at him. He was neatly folding his coat to place in his lap with precise, elegant movements. “When I said a man suddenly appeared in my condo while I was practicing, I didn’t mean an intruder.”

“So I presumed,” he said. “I would think you would have called the police.”

“He _suddenly appeared_.” She glanced at him again. “And… when I said he looked odd…”

His well-manicured hands were redoing his ponytail. “Yes?”

“He had _wings._ ” Sakura kept her eyes on the road this time, but waited for his polite, cultured voice to calmly request her to pull over and let him out.

Instead, there was silence. It lasted about five minutes before she darted a look at him again. Itachi was simply looking out the window.

“No comment?” she pressed.

“Ah, well, I thought it might be something like that when you mentioned you went to the Fujiwara estate sale,” he said. “That whole thing was handled abominably… You haven’t mentioned anything to my brother, have you?”

“No…”

“Good. I’d rather he not get involved. He doesn’t have the kind of personality that knows where to stop, you know.” Itachi sighed. “Better he stick with his little stage show…”

“I think I _am_ going crazy,” she muttered.

He smiled slightly at her. “I’m sorry. It goes against my training to say much. I know getting mixed up with youkai must be overwhelming.”

“Youkai? Like Inuyasha?!”

“What is that?”

“Uh… it’s a Japanese cartoon.”

“Ah. Possibly. In any event, don’t be too worried, Sakura.”

“Don’t be too worried?! You’re telling me I have a Japanese demon in my condo and I shouldn’t be worried?”

“Well. Not _too_ worried. If you had summoned something really harmful, you wouldn’t have been able to leave.”

“How reassuring!”

“Demon isn’t the right word either,” he said. “Youkai are simply another form of intelligent life, one that generally avoids humans nowadays. Almost all the human eating spirits are extinct.”

“Almost?!”

He sighed. “I see I am making things worse.”

“How do you know about all this? Aren’t you just a stage magician too?”

“Akatsuki is kind of a front,” he said vaguely. “So you weren’t able to communicate with him at all?”

“Well, he said his name was Kakashi. And I told him I was Sakura. Oh God, I didn’t like, give him my eternal soul or something when I told him my name, did I?!”

“No,” he said, but he sounded distracted, and when she glanced over at him, his eyes were closed and lips slightly pursed.

Her mind reeled back temporarily. “Wait a minute, the most popular show in Vegas is a _front?!_ A front for what?”

“I shouldn’t tell you.”

“What, you could tell me but you’d have to kill me?” She said the cliche line lightly, waiting for him to laugh, but there was no laughter in the car but her own, slightly hysterical giggle.

The rest of the short ride to her condo was silent. _This is the craziest dream I’ve ever had,_ she told herself repeatedly as she locked her car. The wheels of Itachi’s little roll-aboard suitcase made the only noise as they walked to the elevator.

She unlocked her door and opened it, but the winged man wasn’t immediately visible at the dining table. Itachi stepped around and past her, pulling off his shoes swiftly and heading in. “Itachi—wait—” Sakura hurried to get her own sandals off and chase him into her bedroom.

The winged man was lying on his stomach on her bed, chin propped on his palm, reading one of the erotic romances she hid in a box in her closet. He looked up at them and made a little wave. “Yo.”

Itachi bowed and began, “ _Kuebiko-sama_ —” but Sakura cut him off.

“Where did you get that?!” she demanded. “That is _private!_ You were digging in my things? What are you even doing reading that if you can’t understand English?”

The spirit grinned, his eyes crinkling into happy half moons.

“Oh my God,” Sakura said, incensed, “You _do_ understand English! Why didn’t you say something?”

“This way is funnier,” he said mildly. “And look at what an interesting consequence it has led to already. I haven’t dealt with an Uchiha for a while.” When he said that, he opened the scarred eye, revealing a swirling pattern of black and red. Sakura stared at it transfixed.

“Kuebiko-sama—” Itachi tried again. This time the spirit cut him off.

“She knows me as Kakashi,” he said.

“Is that a fake name? Is Kuebiko your real one?”

Itachi raised himself out of his bow and elbowed Sakura in the ribs, jolting her into remembering that despite her anger at Kakashi’s delving into her box of guilty pleasures, he was not exactly someone she should be scolding.

But Kakashi spoke up cheerfully. “Maa, neither of them are fake names, Sakura. You know, my first impression of you was… not good… but I think I’m going to like you very much.”


	2. Chapter 2

Before Sakura could collect herself enough to come up with a response to the crazy dangerous spirit reclining on her bed, there was a sudden swirl and snap of energy, revealing a darling little pug wearing a cute little blue vest.

“ _Yo, bossu_ ,” said the dog, and then a long string of Japanese.

“How’s your English, Pakkun?” asked the spirit lazily.

“Eh?” The dog blinked. “It’s alright. Why?”

“Maa, I’ve been reminded it’s rude to speak a language someone doesn’t understand around them,” Kakashi said. “May I introduce you, speaking of rudeness? This is Sakura. She summoned me.”

“She summoned _you_?” Pakkun looked her up and down apprehensively. “I don’t know, boss, she looks pretty young to me. Maybe you could let it slide?”

“Don’t worry.” Kakashi waved his hand. “She amuses me.”

Itachi started to speak in Japanese again, and Kakashi cut him off. “I thought I just said that it’s rude to speak a language around someone who doesn’t understand it. Although…” His tone got milder. “Why don’t you speak it, Sakura? You’re Japanese, aren’t you?”

“Japanese- _American,_ ” Sakura said, leaning very hard on the American part. “I’m more American than Japanese. I was born here and I’ve only been to Japan to visit.”

“Hmm.” Kakashi stretched. “It’s a pretty set of islands. Nice mountains. Their gods might be possessive, though.”

Pakkun was now staring at Itachi. “ _Yama no itachi desuka_? What is the English…”

Kakashi said with a smile, “Makes things easy, doesn’t it?” From beneath his stomach he pulled out… one of her sandals?

Itachi backed up. “Please don’t…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Kakashi had lightly tossed the sandal at Itachi. He caught it with a mournful expression… and vanished.

“The word in English is _weasel,_ by the way, Pakkun,” Kakashi said. He smiled at Sakura. “Sorry about the sandal. I’ll make it up to you.”

Sakura was still staring, speechless, at the spot where Itachi was standing a moment ago.

“Now that we have some privacy,” Kakashi continued, “we can discuss terms.”

“Terms?” squeaked Sakura.

“Maa, of course.” He smiled pleasantly. “You didn’t think I worked for free, did you?”

“I… I genuinely don’t need anything! This was just an unfortunate accident!” she pleaded.

Pakkun’s head tilted, making his pug-like ears flop around adorably. “How do you summon a god by accident?”

“Well… I’m a magician… I mean that’s what I aspire to be, right now I’m just an assistant…”

“So far this isn’t sounding very accidental,” Kakashi said.

“Not _real_ magic! _Stage_ magic! I mean…” She looks at the empty spot that used to hold Itachi, and then back to the _winged man reading her romance novels._ “I didn’t know there was such a thing as real magic!”

“Then how is it that you immediately called to your aid a sorcerer from a cursed clan?”

“A cursed… a cursed _what?_ ” Sakura rubbed at her eyes. _This cannot be real…_ “His brother Sasuke and I went to school together!”

“Sasuke? Really? What, is he a ninja?” Kakashi scoffs.

“It’s a stage name… for his magic show, the one I work at, actually. The Amazing Ninja Magic Show. He, uh… catches shuriken in his teeth… he punches his hand through my chest…”

Kakashi’s face seems to show genuine shock, and so Sakura hastens to add, “But I mean it’s all just tricks! And to be honest I think they’re kinda dumb… I want to make my own show, something that’s really _spectacular_ … but I’ve gotta come up with my own hook, right?”

“A hook?”

“Uh, a gimmick… crap… something that becomes my signature… my specialty! So, well, I’m looking for props to help my show and that’s why I went to the Fujiwara estate sale to pick some up… I just wanted reading a spell to be part of my act!”

To her initial confusion, Kakashi looked delighted. “You want me to be part of your act?! Like, _acting_? Is the story like this one?” He waved the romance novel at her.

Confusion quickly gave way to one thought only: _ohhhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiii_

Before she could even finish the expletive, one dog after another popped into existence in her bedroom, filling the air with a cacophony of barking and Japanese.

Through it all, Kakashi’s words were all too clear. “To make a successful act with you will be my pleasure! I accept!”

Sakura fell back on the only excuse she could think of to get out of almost any situation: “Uh, I need to use the bathroom… be right back.”

He reopened the book as Sakura fled. “Take your time! I’ll do some plot research…”

She pulled out her phone as soon as she had locked the door, and slid down the door to the cold tile as she saw missed messages from Sasuke.

 **Sasuke** [Today, 2:05pm]: Is Itachi with you?

She opened up the phone to the messaging app and stared at it for a moment before typing back the truthful, but misleading, _No, why?_

 **Sasuke** [2:12 pm] I was supposed to pick him up from the airport but I overslept and I missed his messages. He read my messages but he hasn’t replied, and now his phone’s going straight to voicemail.

 _If I hear from him, I’ll tell him to contact you,_ she typed back to Sasuke. And then added a smiley face. _:D_

 _WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU ARE YOU ALRIGHT?????_ She then typed to Itachi. No read receipt popped up in the minute she stared at the phone.

She was interrupted in her panic by a loud, business-like knock at the front door. Sakura scrambled back to her feet, quickly flushed the toilet and ran the water in the sink briefly, then rushed out past the door to her room filled with many unearthly dogs and one very unearthly man—they all turned to watch her speed by—and to her front door.

It was Ms. Suzume, the busybody head of her condo’s AOAO (Association of Apartment Owners). “Good afternoon, Ms. Haruno. May I come in?”

“Uh, it’s kind of a bad time for me right now,” Sakura said.

Ms. Suzume adjusted her glasses and smiled unpleasantly. “I’m sure. This will only take a moment.”

She attempted to step in, but Sakura refused to budge. “What’s this about?”

“Ms. Haruno, I’ve received a complaint about _dogs_ in your apartment, and as you know, I have the right to inspect to make sure you are in compliance with our pet policy. Now, please let me in.”

Oh, _shit._ The only reason Sakura was able to afford a place this nice was because her grandparents were letting her live in it for cheap now that they’d gone back to Japan to retire. If she got in trouble for breaking condo policy, that gravy train might totally derail.

“Who is it, Sakura?” called Kakashi from her room, and as she turned, Ms. Suzume slid by her and towards the bedroom.

Sakura chased after her and found…

…Kakashi, looking very charming and, more importantly, wingless, lounging on her bed with the television on mute.

“Oh my,” said Ms. Suzume, a blush spreading across her pinched face.

“Maa, I must apologize,” Kakashi said genially. “I had the television on _far_ too loudly. It was entirely my fault. You won’t hold it against Sakura, will you? I would hate to get my cousin in trouble, especially when she’s being so kind to put me up on her couch for my impromptu visit.”

“Oh, she’s your cousin?” Ms. Suzume’s hand came up to play with her terrible perm. “Well, you know, _I_ have a spare room, Mr… I didn’t catch your name…?”

“Hatake,” Kakashi said. “That’s very kind of you, but I want to maximize the time I spend with my cousin before I go back to Japan. But perhaps, if you have spare time, you can show me around your beautiful city while my cousin is working?”

Ms. Suzume giggled, she actually _giggled._ “Ooh, Mr. Hatake, I would be _thrilled_ to show you a good time.”

Sakura recovered herself and began to steer the woman towards the door. “Yes, well, as I said at the door, now is actually a bad time, so I’ll give my _dear cousin_ your number and he’ll be in touch with you later. Goodbye.”

“Call me soon!” Ms. Suzume called as Sakura shut the door in her face.

“Not allowing dogs is the sign of a narrow and myopic soul,” Kakashi announced without any trace of humour as Sakura walked back into the bedroom. “Terrible woman. There are plenty like her in Japan, as well. It’s an epidemic.”

Her phone buzzed, and Sakura pulled it out of her pocket in hopes it was Itachi, but it was another message from Sasuke.

 **Sasuke** [2:17pm]: Can you meet me at the Arvo Cafe?

“Who’s that?”

Sakura realized that she was blushing, and that only made her blush harder. “Uuh… my boss…”

Kakashi looked suspicious. “What does he want?”

“He wants me to meet him… probably to do with work…” _God I hope it’s not to do with work._

———

It was to do with work.

“This is Sam,” Sasuke said, gesturing to a tall, bored-looking blonde woman with staggeringly large breasts. “She just moved here from… where was it?”

“St. Cloud, Minnesota,” she said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Uh, nice to meet you,” Sakura said, swallowing her disappointment. “I’m Sakura.”

“Cool,” said Sam.

“Sam’s never done theatre before,” said Sasuke, “but I think she can bring something really big to my show.”

 _Yeah, maybe two really big things,_ Sakura thought, but then felt embarrassed at her own bitchiness. “Well, it’s not too difficult, I’m sure we’ll work well together.”

“Cool.”

Sasuke began going over the script with the two of them, before a girl with hair dyed tomato red and styled in a trendy asymmetrical cut rushed over and pulled a chair to sit between Sasuke and Sakura, much to Sakura’s annoyance.

“Sorry I’m late,” Karin said, adjusting her glasses, “I got a call from the theatre when I was almost here. They’re going to pay us—be sure, with the contract I negotiated there’s no way they could get out of paying us—but our shows next weekend are canceled.”

“What? What do you mean, my show is canceled? What’s going on?” Sasuke demanded.

“They had some kind of one-weekend-only opportunity for something else. Don’t worry! We’ll still be paid!”

Sasuke gritted his teeth. “Karin, have you forgotten that the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians is having a convention in Hawaii that weekend?! How are they supposed to come and see my show _if my show isn’t happening?!_ ”

Karin opened her mouth and closed it. “Oh.”

Sasuke got up from the table. “I’m going to call him myself and find out what’s going on. Sam, you’ve got the script, I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’ll see you at the theatre tonight.”

Without a word or even a look at Sakura, he stalked off, pulling out his phone as he left. Karin leapt up and chased after him.

“Well, it was cool meeting you,” Samui said in the same unimpressed voice as she fished her own phone out of her bag and stood up. “Bye.”

Sakura’s own phone buzzed and she pulled it out.

 **Itachi** [4:02pm]: I apologize, it took me a while to get to a place with cell phone signal. Are you alright? Please call me as soon as possible, I will refund any international calling charges you accrue.

_International calling charges? The fuck?_

She dialed the number and was relieved to hear his voice.

“Hello, Sakura.”

“What do you mean ‘international calling charges’?” she hissed without preamble. “Where are you?”

“A certain mountain in Japan. Fortunately, close enough to a certain shrine that I didn’t have to walk very far without my shoes. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. You’re in Japan?”

“Yes. I’m on my way to the airport and I’ve got a ticket for Honolulu already purchased. Sakura, please be very careful while I’m on my way. I won’t be able to get there until tomorrow morning and I’ll come straight to see you. I’m telling my brother that I ran into a colleague at the airport. Just make sure you don’t say anything to him, alright? I don’t want him mixed up in this, Sakura.” There was a long pause. “Sakura? Hello? Sakura, are you there?”

Sakura had stopped speaking because she was staring at the entrance of the cafe, where Sasuke and Karin were talking animatedly to a tall, silver-haired man.


	3. Chapter 3

Sakura got up and rushed to the entrance. Kakashi was leaning against a wall, again sans wings, but dressed very differently from how he had been in her apartment. He now looked every inch the stereotypical tourist: loud Hawaiian shirt, big dark sunglasses, camera hung around his neck, immaculate white shoes, and pale totally untanned skin pronounced him as someone who had just arrived in Honolulu.

He and Sasuke were speaking to each other in rapid Japanese, mostly incomprehensible to her; unlike her parents, who had were second generation and spoke English at home, Sasuke had grown up speaking Japanese at home just like Itachi. Karin didn’t know any Japanese at all and was contributing by nodding rapidly whenever it seemed like Sasuke was getting in a particularly good point.

“Aloha!” Kakashi said. “What a delightful little place. Could you grab me a coffee to go, Sakura?”

“Wait a minute,” said Sasuke. “Sakura, how do you know this guy?”

“He’s my cousin.” The cover story from the condo leapt immediately to her lips. “Uh, do you know him too?”

“You didn’t tell me you had a cousin who’s a magician,” Sasuke said with the tightest and iciest of smiles. “A cousin who’s a magician with the pull to somehow get _my fucking show cancelled and replaced with his own._ ”

Karin spoke _this_ language. “Hold on Sasuke, let me handle the business end. Sakura, you’re involved with this? Isn’t this an undisclosed conflict of interest? I think you’ll find in your contract that—”

“Maa, you’ve ruined the surprise.” It was amazing how a voice so relaxed could cut Karin’s sharp voice off so abruptly, leaving the redhead pushing at her glasses to reorient herself as Kakashi continued, “And I think you misunderstand. I’m not a magician. I’m in the business of… ah… cultivation?”

“An agent? A talent scout? A promoter?” Karin brightened, and even Sasuke’s scowl lessened.

“Something like that,” Kakashi agreed genially. “I have connections… actually, your cousin Obito knows me very well, Mr. Uchiha.”

“Obito?” Sasuke’s scowl was back with a vengeance. “You’re part of Akatsuki?!”

Kakashi laughed and then proceeded to completely ignore the question. “Anyway, the other thing you misunderstood is that I’m not replacing your show with my show. I’m replacing your show with Sakura’s show.”

“Sakura doesn’t have a show,” Sasuke said. “She can’t have a show. She signed a non-compete clause, didn’t she Karin?”

Karin was looking ill. “No, remember, she specifically negotiated that stricken from the contract and you said it was fine because—” She caught herself, coughed, and continued, “Anyway you both signed a contract without any non-compete clauses. She signed that she had truthfully and fully disclosed any conflict of interest, though!”

“Well it’s just like I said,” Kakashi said sweetly, “I’m not a magician. It was just that Sakura was kind enough to put me up for my spur of the moment vacation, and I wanted to repay her… and I know someone who knows someone… you know…” He waved his hand vaguely. “But I’m sure this is all unnecessary, isn’t it? After all, surely you’re not going to sue Sakura. It’s better if we’re all friendly with each other.”

Sasuke worked his jaw. “I _need_ that weekend. There are some very important people coming into Honolulu that weekend and I need them to come see _me._ ”

“Oh! Well, why didn’t you say so! I’m sure I can adjust things so that Sakura can be your opening act and you can still perform! Although she herself will have to be absent from your show of course. I’ll want to take her out to celebrate her enormous success.” From her angle, Sakura could see Kakashi’s uncanny red eye wink at her.

“An opening act?” Karin looked at Sasuke. “Sasuke, that might actually be really good, right?”

“I still don’t like it,” Sasuke said.

“Well, if you don’t like it, I can retract the offer and your show won’t go on at all,” Kakashi said pleasantly. “Sakura, what about that coffee to go?”

Sasuke was giving her a death glare that she was only too willing to run away from. “Right! Coffee!”

She went back inside to the counter and got in line. Just as she reached the front, Kakashi was suddenly speaking from over her shoulder.

“Thanks for queueing for me,” he told her brightly, and then the barista, “A short black to go, please. Aloha!”

The barista giggled. “Aloha to you too cutie. That’ll be $3.20.”

Sakura glanced back towards the doorway. Karin and Sasuke were gone.

“What was that?” she hissed at Kakashi. “Are you trying to get me fired as well as evicted?!”

“Would I get my cousin fired?” Kakashi arched an eyebrow high enough to peek out over the top of the ridiculous sunglasses.

“I’m not actually your cousin!”

“Even better,” Kakashi said, and accepted the coffee cup from the barista and took a sip. “This stuff is good, you know? I hope you don’t muck yours up with sugar.”

“I need this job!”

“You won’t after next week darling. Remember? I’m going to make you a successful act. He won’t be firing you; you’ll be quitting.”

“But my act isn’t ready! It’s barely in the development stages!”

Kakashi frowned and nodded. “A good point. Alright. I suppose we had better get working on that then. By the way, what’s your favourite trick?”

“Well…” _I guess I’m going with this…_ “I’ve always been fascinated by the big stage illusions—walking through the Great Wall, sawing a lady in half, levitating…”

“This one is my trademark. I’d like you to close your eyes and pick a number between five and forty-seven.”

Sakura sighed, but closed her eyes. “Twenty-six.”

“Wrong, I was thinking of thirty. I guess we’re not as compatible as I thought.”

Sakura opened her eyes back up but her intended remark turned into a shriek. They were back in her bedroom, and Kakashi was once again lounging on her bed with his wings on full display. He took another sip from the to-go coffee cup and took off his sunglasses. Her heart was thudding in her chest. He was so handsome, he was _mesmerizing._ A thousand competing legends from all over the world were jostling in her head, but one common trait was screaming at her in one voice:

_This is dangerous._

“You’re just going to… make my act a hit?” She said with more confidence by far than she felt.

“Yes.”

“And then you’ll go?”

“And then I’ll go.”

“And… I don’t owe you anything?”

Kakashi’s expressive eyes narrowed. “You pulled me across an ocean and set me the task of making your dream come true… and you think that is worth nothing?”

Sakura almost politely denied this as a reflex but caught herself just in time. _You idiot! If you just politely say to a fairy, ‘oh, no, of course not,’ then you’re on the hook for a thousand years inside a goose’s egg or some shit like that!_ “I didn’t say that,” she said instead, since it was both true and cagey.

Kakashi smiled. “We’ll just say the matter is open, then?”

_Trap trap trap! If I say it’s closed, then I may be committing to something I didn’t know about in the spell—but if I say it’s open, that would tend to mean I think there is some kind of repayment, right?_ Sakura decided uncertainty was safer. “It’s open.”

Kakashi smiled broadly. Damn, he looked far too sweet and pure with that smile. “Good. Now, tell me all your fantasies—the ones that you’d want to perform on stage, that is.”

**Author's Note:**

> In an effort to more accurately mirror the real-life racial diversity of Honolulu, the human characters in this story will be a range of ethnicities and therefore may have their names tweaked to reflect that. Sakura Haruno is Japanese heritage so her name remains the same. Ino is Filipina so her name is a nickname for Inocencia. The Uchiha brothers are also Japanese heritage but Sakura knows them by stage names (Sasuke and Itachi being fairly ridiculous names). More to come as characters are introduced.


End file.
